Mango Bay Resort Feb 25th-27th

All through our first week of school we had been talking about what we were wanting to do for the weekend. We knew we wanted to get out of Suva and go somewhere new, preferably somewhere relaxing because our first week of school had been really grueling with all the walking... and listening... and laying around in between classes. So we decided to go to a cheap backpacker resort, we figured we deserved it.

My friend Hannah and I figured out who all wanted to go, and then we made the plans by making reservations (making sure to get the student discount, which ended up being only about $15 a night) and figuring out the bus schedule to get us there. In the end there was 9 of us who decided to go so on Friday after the last of us got done with classes we caught a bus into downtown Suva and then hopped on another bus that would take us to Mango Bay. When we first got on the bus it was a little crowded and most of us were sitting in between random people. I was in between two scrawny Indo-Fijian men, so it could have been worse. Hannah sat next to a larger man that was pushing her out into the aisle (Dad feel free to make some joke about fat people here). But after the first stop some people cleared out and we moved around to more comfortable seats. The bus only took about an hour and a half which was pretty good and all in all it wasn't too bad on the bus considering that there was no AC and it could only go about 5 mph uphill, no exaggeration.

A bus from the resort picked us up at the top of the driveway and took us straight to the resort's doorstep. The resort itself was great. It is in a little bay, hence the name, and there is really nothing else directly around it. It's very spread out which was nice. We stayed in the group dorms which had 12 bunk beds in each one. We had a couple other people stay in our same room the second night, but mostly we just took it over. Each bunk had its own mosquito net which was good because the mosquitoes were pretty bad in the evening and morning.

The beach out front stayed shallow for a very long time and the water was crystal clear so we saw lots of starfish and fish. I took some cool pictures with my underwater camera. The only problem was that walking out there was a really delicate process because the coral can slice up your feet pretty good. Another problem was that the water was so warm that it really wasn't much of a cool down from the heat outside, fortunately the pool was a little bit cooler so a dip in that was pretty refreshing. That night all nine of us ate dinner together. Malia and I were going to share a black peppered tuna fillet, but they ended up accidentally bringing us two different things and so we got a free plate. Both of them were tuna, and they were both delicious. Not too fishy at all. It was only about $9 a plate, which is pretty decent for what we got. The rest of the night we just sort of hung around and played card games.

The next morning we got up early to take full advantage of continental breakfast, which didn't really have much other than cereal, toast, watermelon and papaya, and coffee. But that was enough for us. Then a quick dip in the ocean followed by a long dip in the pool where Hannah, Caitlin and I spent a couple hours taking underwater pictures of us. Mango Bay is sort of geared towards a younger crowd I think, so they had a lot of scheduled activities that we participated in. We played pool volleyball and met two Australians who have been volunteering in Samoa this last year and had found cheap tickets to Fiji to take a little vacation. After pool volleyball we played beach volleyball and then later on played some "Olympic games" which included an egg toss, pineapple smash, tug of war, kayak race, etc. The Australians were on our team and we played against a largely British group, and there was definitely some trash talking going on. It was fun though, we ended up losing in a tie breaker volleyball game.

That night there was some traditional Fijian dancing, more food eating (Malia and I split some mango fish cakes over mashed potatoes, also really good) and a little beer drinking. I met a really drunk Swedish man that I didn't really want to meet. When I finally got away I spent the rest of the night looking at the stars (which are great here) with the rest of the group. All in all the trip was very cheap, and well worth it.

School and the Bucket List

University of the South Pacific has several different campuses throughout the islands in the South Pacific, but the one here in Fiji, called the Laucala Campus is the biggest and most prestigious. What it is most known for is its programs in Marine biology, which makes sense I suppose. A few of the international students came here for just that reason. The campus is really nice, even though the facilities are not quite what I am used to. In most of the classes there is no air conditioning, just fans. The boards are mostly chalk boards, and if you want to go to the bathroom you have to bring your own toilet paper. But in all honesty, I really do love the campus, and even though I have a class that I have to get to early or else I won't have a seat or a desk, I think they have a pretty good system.

The first class I am taking is Literature of the South Pacific, which is basically an introductory class to literary theory, but it examines it in terms of local literature. So far I have read some short stories and excerpts and one long novel called Kisses in the Nederends, which is about a man with a pain in his "arsehole". It's pretty funny, I'll bring it home and all the people with bowel problems in our family can read the different ways he tried to cure himself of said pain.

My second class is taught by an Australian man and it is a special topic history class about USA involvement in the Pacific Islands. It's an interesting class to be in because as my teacher said, for the US, the Pacific Islands are hardly even an issue, but for the Pacific Islands, the US has had at times a monumental impact on their way of life. I'm already learning some pretty interesting things, some of which are sad, such as the fact that the US has used several islands in the Pacific as nuclear testing grounds or dump sites (however it hasn't been just the US to do this). At first I was nervous that it would just be a US bashing class, but really it's extremely factual and has been pretty impartial.

My final class is the only one that I am not quite sure about. It is Politics of Human Rights, and the only reason I am hesitant is that it is not being taught by the regular teacher. He is on maternity leave, and his replacement openly admitted to not knowing much about the subject. I've only had one class of that so far, so it might get better though.

The work load for them is pretty decent, and I'm going to have to try and really stay on top of everything if I want to be able to leave on the weekends to go do fun stuff.

Along with school, I have been working on a bucket list of the things I want to do while I'm here. There is a lot on it, but not all of it is too crazy. Hopefully I will be able to afford most of it. I think I should be able to as long as I plan things out well. But here is the short version of the list:

1. Get Scuba License
2. Go on a Shark Dive
3. Meet a professional rugby player
4. Island hop in the Yasawas
5. Go on a "trek" (basically a backpacking trip)
6. Join the paddling club
7. See a Rugby game
8. Go to the hot springs and mud pools
9. Hot air balloon or skydive
10. Ride a horse on the beach (for free)
11. Go to the sand dunes
12. Take the Natadola train
13. Go on the Zip Line
14. Go cave exploring
15. Go white water rafting

Yea, I know, it's a lot, but I think all of it is doable if I really plan out my weekends. Oh, and I also get double points if I do any of those things with an attractive Fijian man or if I do it for free, triple points for all three.

Sote Village Trip Feb 12th-14th

AustraLearn had arranged for the entire group of us to all travel to a village and do a volunteer project and spend some time learning about what real Fijian village life is like. This was only the second time AustraLearn had done this with a group. They have some connection with a lady from the village that has been helping them plan these trips out. Last year the students had helped plant a garden for the school.

The bus ride there only took a little over an hour. The village is inland so we had to ride on a dirt road for most of the trip, but it took us through some pretty cool areas to get there. The village itself only has about 250-300 people in it, 90 of which are students that go to their primary school (basically K-8). So really and truly, the village is just a bunch of kids, and as soon as we pulled up, we could see the kids scrambling to be the first to see us and catch a glimpse of the new Americans that came.

The entire group of us was set up in the Chief's house. He has a big open room where he would normally do entertaining, and all of us were set up on blow-up mattresses throughout the room. First we had a traditional welcoming Kava ceremony, where at the end the girls from the school came in and put garlands on us. The girl that gave me mine, Levinia, smiled at me the whole rest of the trip and took care of me and danced with me. After the ceremony we went straight to painting inside the classrooms. The lady that was in charge had picked out some nice colors, and we had four different classrooms to paint. When we first started, the kids all lined up outside the windows to watch us, but shortly after they were scooted off to go clean up the other rooms.

After some painting, some of us went to go play games with the kids. I tried to play soccer for a bit, but I was having a hard time running in the mud and it wasn't really my best performance. Then some other little kids, named Akusita and Ruthie convinced me to go swimming in the river. It was very refreshing and the kids loved it. Then back to more painting, this time with some helps from the kids themselves, who probably got more paint on the ground than they actually did on the ceiling.

The women of the village cooked for us all weekend, and they cooked in excess, so all of the meals I tried to eat as much as I possibly could. Lots of curry, lots of fish, and lots of rice. It was all pretty good though. That night the kids of the village performed traditional Mekes for us (which I liked way better than the tourist village's mekes) and afterwards, there was much more Kava drinking and then lots of dancing. I think the village only had one CD, so I heard the same songs over and over and over.

I danced with a few different men/boys, which was funny. They don't really touch when they dance (at least in the village they don't, in the city it's different) unless they are standing by your side and doing this funny walk forward/backward thing. Otherwise they just face you and move their hips and their arms and make noises or say "shake it, shake it". It was fun, and we stayed up for quite a while just dancing. The next day was Sunday, the day of rest, so there was no painting that day. We went to church, which was nice, lots of singing, and then afterwards we ate some more food, and then we went bush trekking. Basically, we crossed the river three times, hiked through knee deep mud, walked over thorns, climbed waterfalls, and descended mountains in the jungle, day of rest my ass. It was awesome though, and basically all of the young people in the village accompanied us, and the really little kids carried everything we brought with us, flip flops, cameras, water. I had made friends with a girl Vere who is about my age and she held me hand the entire way, which was a nice thought, but probably made walking more difficult instead of less. When we came back our legs were scratched up, lots of us had to pull thorns out of our feet, we were sun burnt, and out of clean clothes.

All of the kids come to the chief's house and spent the next few hours braiding the girls' hair and taking pictures with our cameras. The entire town was waiting until midnight so we could start dancing again, but by that time I wasn't feeling too hot, and I had to call it quits, but I hear the dancing went on until 4 a.m..

The next day we finished up the painting, then ate lunch, then had a traditional farewell ceremony (more kava) and then about 2 hours of dancing, which was pretty gross considering how sweaty we all were. But pretty much everyone got into it, and even after the bus got to the village to pick us up, we danced for another 45 minutes hearing every time "one more song!". Once we finally climbed onto the bus all of the people crowded around and reached in through the windows to say goodbye to all of us. It was pretty amazing.

Most of us want to go back at some point, but we have to be careful because Fijians will be so generous that they give us food that they can't really afford to give us. So if we do go, we have been instructed to bring things like flour and cooking oil and of course the traditional gift of kava root.

Uprising Resort Feb 8-11

As soon as we got off the plane, people were there to meet us and we hopped right on a minibus to take us to Uprising Resort. The drive was about an hour and a half along the coast of Fiji (It only takes about 9 hours to drive along the entire Island I think). It was incredibly beautiful. I didn't realize how mountainous Fiji was until I was driving through it. It's all volcanic just like Hawaii so there are these really cool formations and I hear rumors of beaches littered with volcanic rock.

We got to the resort itself, which was quaint in a "I have tons of money so I think things that made of bamboo and thatched roofs are quaint" sort of way. A local Fijian started the resort which is sort of unusual, it seems that most of the resorts are started by foreigners, but this guy wanted to start something that would provide jobs for all the people living in the area. I think they have been open for 3 years or so... I'm not sure on that though.

We stayed in these "bures" which is just the name they call those little thatched houses. In my bure I stayed with Abby, Erin, and Hannah. The house was really nice, complete with a little kitchen and an outdoor shower (which was really cool to take showers in as soon as they fixed the hot water).

The first day was just getting to meet everyone and doing some orientation meetings and things. Our coordinators were really great. The both of them are pretty young and they had done a lot of traveling/living abroad, so they knew what they were talking about. And they were both down to share some beers at the bar later, so of course I liked them.

The next day we had a scheduled tour that we went on. The whole thing was really touristy, but I still liked it. We rode up the river in these motor canoes to a small village, whose income I'm sure comes straight from tourists who stay in Pacific Harbor (where we were staying, "the adventure capital of the world"). They showed us a traditional welcoming ceremony, complete with Kava drinking, Mekes, and lunch.

Kava is the national drink. It is also known as Grog or Yaqona, but most often they just call it Kava. It's made from the root of some native plant that takes five years to mature and then they dig it up and grind up the roots into a powder using a gigantic metal version of a mortar and pestle. Then they put the powder into a cloth sack and put the sack in this gigantic wooden bowl called a tanoa. Next they pour water over the sack and the head guy in charge of the tanoa for that day (I'm not yet sure how it is decided who is in charge of it) works the sack with his hands until the mixture is done.

To start out the traditional Kava ceremony, the "chief" of the visiting tribe/group/tourists is given the first bowl of kava, which is always served out of a communal coconut shell. To accept the drink, you have to clap once, say Bula (which is similar to Aloha in Hawaii), drink the Kava (they call this part down the hatch because you are supposed to drink it all in one go, no sipping here), then hand the bowl back and clap three times. It's all very traditional. Then the elders of the village are served, and eventually everyone else is served too.

It is considered impolite to decline the first bowl of kava, but I haven't had the courage to decline any of them quite yet. It really does taste like muddy water, but there is something distinctive enough about it that I can recognize the root as I walk through the market just by its smell. It makes your mouth a little tingly at first, but that goes away pretty fast. Other than that, I don't think I have drank enough for it to have any real effect on me, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't really have an effect on anyone else other than to make them "groggy" and sleep really well.

After the welcoming ceremony they performed a couple mekes which just means traditional dances. One of them was a dance having to do with cannibalism, which was widely practiced in Fiji (it was called the cannibal island) up until the mid-late 1800s. They danced with some clubs they called "neck-breakers" because they were used to twist enemies necks quickly and efficiently. After the meke we had a tour of the village and then came back to eat some food. The food here is good, but true Fijian food does not have much variety, just lots of things cooked either in curry or in coconut milk and weird roots that taste sort of like potatoes.

Once we finished eating we went up the river farther to walk to a really great waterfall were we could go swimming right underneath it. Obviously another tourist destination, but still great nonetheless. Then we went back down the river and back to Uprising were after dinner and a short trip to the bar, I went straight to sleep.

The next day we went to Yanuca Island, which is just a small island off of the Pacific Coast. We took a boat ride out there and spent the whole day just exploring. I did some snorkeling and saw some cool fishes and coral, but it turns out I am not very coordinated when it comes to snorkeling, and because I have such a small pea head, the goggles did little to keep water out of my nose and eyes, so snorkeling was not as rewarding as it could have been. I also climbed over some rocks and hurt my feet but got to see some cool crabs. We had some barbeque and then called it good and went back to the main island and then on to Uprising.

That night I met a really attractive African man getting his PHD in Medical Science in Sydney, Australia and his friend, a really attractive French Caribbean man. They thought I was interesting because I had lived in Brazil for a year. My flirting skills were a little rusty though, so I called it quits and went to bed. They looked pretty surprised, probably because it was only 11. Oh well, maybe it made me seem mysterious.

The next day we left Uprising and finally made it to Suva, which will be my home base while here in Fiji. We did a short tour of the city and then came back to the short-term houses we had been put in. It was just me and my soon-to-be full-time roommate Malia in one house. We were the furthest away from everyone else and we spent the whole night waking up at every little sound convinced that either a man was sneaking into our house to kill us, or cockroaches were swarming our beds (yes, there are plenty of cockroaches here, I just found a dead one underneath my dresser today). But we made it through the night.